Words With Many Jobs

Toki Pona 1

Chapter 3 · Words With Many Jobs

🔧 Words With Many Jobs — nimi mute, pali mute

In English, "work" can be a noun ("a work of art") or a verb ("I work"), but most words keep one job. In Toki Pona nearly every word can be a noun, a verb or a describing word, and only its position in the sentence tells you which. This is how 120 words stretch to cover a whole language. By the end of this chapter you will read a word's job from its place, build phrases of two, three or more words, and use a pronoun or a noun to describe another noun.

🎭 One Word, Three Jobs

Word	As a noun	As a verb	As a describing word
moku	moku li pona. The food is good.	mi moku. I eat.	tomo moku eating-house (restaurant)
pali	pali li suli. The work is big.	mi pali. I work.	jan pali worker
toki	toki li pona. The talk is good.	mi toki. I talk.	jan toki speaker
tawa	tawa li pona. The trip is good.	mi tawa. I go.	tomo tawa moving-house (vehicle)
pona	pona li suli. Goodness is important.	(rare: to fix, to improve)	jan pona friend

The rule is simple. A word before li (or directly after mi or sina) is the subject or the verb. A word after another word describes it. A word at the start of a phrase is the head, the main thing being talked about.

Watch Out — Do Not Hunt for "the" Meaning moku in mi moku is not a noun that has been turned into a verb; it is simply the same word doing a verb's job. Learners who keep asking "is this the noun or the verb?" waste time. Ask instead "what is it doing in this sentence?" The position answers, and the English word you choose follows from it.

🧩 The Head Word Comes First

In a phrase the head word comes first, and each word after it describes it. This is the opposite of English, where the describer comes first.

Toki Pona	Word by word	English
jan pona	person good	friend
tomo suli	house big	a big house
tomo suli sin	house big new	a new big house
soweli lili	animal small	a small animal
kili mute	fruit many	much fruit, many fruits
tomo telo	house water	bathroom

📚 Stacking Describers

Describers can be piled up, and each one narrows down the whole phrase to its left. tomo suli sin is "a new one of the big houses", not "a big one of the new houses"; the difference is slight, and good speakers keep stacks short. More than three words in a row and you should probably rephrase. The order of describers can change the meaning:

Phrase	Reading
tomo moku	food house: a restaurant, a kitchen
moku tomo	home food: food of the house
jan pali pona	a good worker
jan pali pona	also a good worker (the same head, one more describer)

🏠 Pronouns as Describers — tomo mi, jan pona sina

To say "my house" you put mi after the noun, as if it were any other describing word: tomo mi, "house I", i.e. my house. The same works with sina and ona, and for any noun phrase.

Toki Pona	English
tomo mi	my house
jan pona sina	your friend
mama ona	his / her / their parent
tomo mi li suli.	My house is big.
jan pona mi li pali.	My friend is working.

The Rule for li Again tomo mi is a noun phrase, so li is needed after it: tomo mi li suli. Only a lone mi or sina drops li (Chapter 2). A phrase that merely contains mi keeps it.

💬 Five Short Dialogs

① The Sun and the Moon — suno, mun

A: suno li suli. The sun is big.

B: mun li lili. The moon is small.

A: suno li pona. The sun is good.

② Where We Eat — tomo moku

A: tomo moku li sin. The restaurant is new.

B: moku li pona. The food is good.

A: kili li mute. There is a lot of fruit.

③ My Work — jan pali

A: mi jan pali. I am a worker.

B: pali sina li pona. Your work is good.

A: jan pali mute li lon. Many workers are here.

④ Clothes and Paper — len, lipu

A: len mi li sin. My clothes are new.

B: lipu sina li ante. Your paper is different.

A: lipu mi li pona. My paper is good.

⑤ The Night — pimeja, kon

A: tenpo pimeja li kama. The dark time is coming. (night is coming)

B: kon li jaki ala. The air is not dirty.

B: mi lape. I sleep.

📖 Vocabulary — nimi

20 words from the official 120. Remember that most do several jobs; the Type column gives the commonest.

#	Toki Pona	Say it	Meaning	Type
1	ma	ma	land, earth, country	noun
2	suno	SU-no	sun, light	noun
3	mun	mun	moon, night sky object	noun
4	kon	kon	air, spirit, essence	noun
5	tenpo	TEN-po	time, moment, period	noun
6	nasin	NA-sin	way, road, method	noun
7	kili	KI-li	fruit, vegetable	noun
8	len	len	clothing, cloth, hidden	noun
9	lipu	LI-pu	flat thing: paper, page, book	noun
10	kulupu	KU-lu-pu	group, community	noun
11	sijelo	SI-ye-lo	body	noun
12	lawa	LA-wa	head; lead, rule	noun / verb
13	nasa	NA-sa	strange, crazy, drunk	adj
14	sewi	SE-wi	above, high, divine	adj
15	wawa	WA-wa	strong, powerful, energetic	adj
16	jaki	YA-ki	dirty, gross	adj
17	pimeja	PI-me-ya	dark, black	adj
18	ante	AN-te	different, other, change	adj
19	pakala	PA-ka-la	broken, ruined, a mistake	adj
20	ni	ni	this, that	pron / adj

One use of ni now, since it is simple: after a noun it means "this" or "that". tomo ni is "this house", jan ni "that person". As a subject it is followed by li: ni li pona "this is good".

Real Toki Pona Tip — Pronunciation Reminder Several words in this chapter contain j, which is a "y" sound: jaki is YA-ki, sijelo is SI-ye-lo, pimeja is PI-me-ya. Remember too that the stress falls on the first syllable of every word, so kulupu is KU-lu-pu. Compare how Constructed Languages 8 chose a fixed stress rule so that learners never have to memorise it.

📜 Reading — lukin

ma mi li suli. kulupu mi li pona. tomo mi li lon ma ni. suno li pona. kon li pona. mi pona. My country is big. My community is good. My house is in this land. The sun is good. The air is good. I am happy.

True or false? (a) The speaker's land is small. (b) The community is good. (c) The air is dirty. (d) The speaker is happy.

Show answers

(a) False: ma mi li suli. (b) True: kulupu mi li pona. (c) False: kon li pona. (d) True: mi pona.

✍️ Try It Yourself — pali

Say each answer out loud first, then click to check.

1. Translate: "my big house", "your new clothes", "a small animal".

Show answer

tomo suli mi · len sin sina · soweli lili

2. Say "The food is good" and "I eat", noting the different job of moku.

Show answer

moku li pona. (moku as the subject, a noun) · mi moku. (moku as the verb).

3. What is the difference between tomo moku and moku tomo?

Show answer

tomo moku is a house for food (a restaurant or kitchen). moku tomo is food of the house (home food). The first word is always the head.

4. Say "This book is new" and "My friend is strong", each with the correct use of li.

Show answer

lipu ni li sin. · jan pona mi li wawa. (both subjects are phrases, so li is needed)

5. Make a word for "bad worker" and for "this strange house".

Show answer

jan pali ike · tomo nasa ni

6. Fix the mistake in each: mi li pali, pona jan mi li moku, tomo ni suli.

Show answer

mi pali (no li after bare mi); jan pona mi li moku (head word first); tomo ni li suli (the subject is a phrase, so it needs li).

Coming Up in Chapter 4 Actions and objects: the particle e that marks what an action is done to, so you can say "I eat fruit", "the person sees the moon" and "I do not make a mistake".